21 Echolalia & Speech Development

<p><strong>Guest:</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Jodi Thomas is a language pathologist and owner of Growing Voices Speech and Language Therapy based in East Valley Phoenix, AZ. Jodi Thomas has training in autism and gestalt language processing and opened her private practice to give children the 1 on 1 attention they deserve. </span></p> <p><strong>Interview:</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are two ways children develop language: analytical and gestalt. Children with autism often develop language using gestalt, and that requires using a different framework for evaluations and treatment to adequately meet their needs. Gestalt means whole. One key factor that is focused on with gestalt is echolalia. Echolalia is the repetition of another person’s spoken word. </span></p> <p><strong>Different Types of Echolalia</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are three types of echolalia. The first type is immediate echolalia. With immediate echolalia the child will simply follow another person’s speech. The second type is delayed echolalia. This type of echolalia tends to happen at a later time</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">and can be produced with no communicative intent. This manner in a way a child communicates is called scripting. This means that the child is repeating words or phrases they’re heard from a parent or tv show. The last type is mitigated echolalia. This is where the child will make a change in wording or intonation made by the person that is speaking to him or her. These different types of echolalia are important to appropriately use gestalt language processing to treat a child. </span></p> <p><strong>Different Stages of Gestalt Language Processing </strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Children who develop a gestalt way of language development learn communication phrases in chunks. In stage 1, a child will start by simply mimicking phrases they hear. During this stage, they will repetitively use the phrases they have acquired and will